The Jewish Ethicist: Beggars' Letters

Relying on letters of recommendations to determine who is truly needy.

Q. Many charity seekers come to my door with recommendation letters from well-known rabbis or organizations. Can I rely on these letters to determine who is truly needy?

A. Giving letters of recommendation to help worthy charity recipients is a centuries-old tradition in Jewish communities. Knowing that an august authority vouches for the bearer, or even that he or she knows of them, goes a long way towards allaying the worries of a giver.

My experience has taught me two things about such letters:

1. It is almost always possible to rely on the content of these letters (when they are genuine).
2. BUT it is important not to read more into the letters than is truly there.

The rabbis or other communal figures who write these letters are usually experienced leaders, who are not quickly taken in by charlatans. However, they also tend to be extremely precise in their use of language, and givers may not always be sensitive to the various expressions they use.

Therefore these letters need to be read with great care. Sometimes the author of such a letter states that he or she personally knows the bearer and can testify for their need, and recommends making a donation. Such a letter is quite a reliable guide that the bearer is truly a worthy recipient.

Sometimes a letter testifies to the author's personal familiarity with the situation, but doesn't testify to their need. This might come about if a rabbi has first-hand knowledge of a person's illness, but without having any definite knowledge that treatment is expensive or that the family is short of money.

In other cases the letter may merely state that the writer knows the recipient and considers him or her a reliable individual. This is important information but is not the same as verification of the person's story.

Some letters merely state that the bearer told the writer of the situation: "So and so told me that he has a rare disease which requires special medical treatment". Such a letter is likely to be reliable, but doesn't really tell us that the charity seeker is needy.

In other cases, a prominent leader may add his name to a letter signed by others writing that he "joins with his colleagues". This generally means that he considers the judgment of the other signatories reliable. This statement is certainly quite meaningful, but it is not equivalent to having the first-hand recommendation of a prominent figure.

Sometimes the content of a letter may be almost comical. A Jewish urban legend tells of an aspiring author who sent his book to a leading rabbi; the rabbi wrote back with a letter of harsh criticism. The author then went from house to house with the letter, showing the "recommendation" of the famous authority which few givers bothered to read.

I don't know if the above "urban legend" is true, but the following story I heard first hand from a rabbi who seldom writes recommendation letters. One congregant so harried and harassed this rabbi that in the end he did pen a letter, something to the effect of: "The bearer of this letter badgered me so much that I agreed to write this letter to get him off my back." The recipient then went around showing others his rare trophy, a letter from this reticent authority! (I'm sure it was not very helpful, as I have no doubt that the letter was written in a clear way to avoid any misunderstanding.)

One community rabbi I know has two separate pads: one says "approval" and the other says "recommendation". The approval of this very thorough rabbi is certainly of value, but it does not amount to a "recommendation" which only a small fraction of charity seekers obtain.

A final caveat: no matter how convincing a letter is, it is of no value if it is not genuine. Sometimes recipients have good reasons for photocopying letters, but givers have a right to ask where the original is and why the charity seeker is carrying a copy.

Giving charity is one of the most important mitzvot in the Torah. Rabbis and other communal letters sacrifice many precious hours interviewing charity recipients and writing letters to help them convince givers of their need. These letters are generally quite reliable and should be taken seriously. At the same time, careful attention to the exact words of the author will help us avoid unfortunate misunderstandings and help us to set appropriate priorities in charitable giving.

The Jewish Ethicist presents some general principles of Jewish law. For specific questions and direct application, please consult a qualified Rabbi.

The Jewish Ethicist is a joint project of Aish.com and the Business Ethics Center of Jerusalem. To find out more about business ethics and Jewish values for the workplace, visit the JCT Center for Business Ethics website at www.besr.org.

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About the Author

Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir is Research Director at the Business Ethics Center of Jerusalem (www.besr.org). He studied at Harvard, received a PhD in Economics from MIT, and rabbinic ordination from the Israeli Chief Rabbinate. Prior to moving to Israel, he worked at the Council of Economic Advisers in the Reagan administration. Rabbi Dr. Meir is also a Senior Lecturer in Economics at the Jerusalem College of Technology and has published several articles on business, economics and Jewish law. He is the author of the two-volume, "Meaning in Mitzvot (Feldheim), and his Aish.com columns form the basis of the "Jewish Ethicist" book (ktav.com).

The opinions expressed in the comment section are the personal views of the commenters. Comments are moderated, so please keep it civil.

Visitor Comments: 1

(1)
Anonymous,
June 21, 2004 12:00 AM

who will be the judge?

so who is to judge whom?
I have been in both places. I have been disabled and hungry, begging on the street and the board member wanted to know only why I couldn't pay membership dues. When I shamefully went to the public (which here is also christian) help society I was asked why my congregation was not helping. Rather than tell them the Jewish congregation didn't help I told them I had no congregation. As a rule, even in my own need, I get $2 coupons from the fast food restaurant and give them out to the homeless when I happen to see them. One day a homeless man asked for $2 for beer. I did not give it to him but it seems that at least my Jewish community gives us both the same judgement.

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I've been striving to get more into spirituality. But it seems that every time I make some progress, I find myself slipping right back to where I started. I'm getting discouraged and feel like a failure. Can you help?

The Aish Rabbi Replies:

Spiritual slumps are a natural part of spiritual growth. There is a cycle that people go through when at times they feel closer to God and at times more distant. In the words of the Kabbalists, it is "two steps forward and one step back." So although you feel you are slipping, know that this is a natural process. The main thing is to look at your overall progress (over months or years) and be able to see how far you've come!

This is actually God's ingenious way of motivating us further. The sages compare this to teaching a baby how to walk. When the parent is holding on, the baby shrieks with delight and is under the illusion that he knows how to walk. Yet suddenly, when the parent lets go, the child panics, wobbles and may even fall.

At such times when we feel spiritually "down," that is often because God is letting go, giving us the great gift of independence. In some ways, these are the times when we can actually grow the most. For if we can move ourselves just a little bit forward, we truly acquire a level of sanctity that is ours forever.

Here is a practical tool to help pull you out of the doldrums. The Sefer HaChinuch speaks about a great principle in spiritual growth: "The external awakens the internal." This means that although we may not experience immediate feelings of closeness to God, eventually, by continuing to conduct ourselves in such a manner, this physical behavior will have an impact on our spiritual selves and will help us succeed. (A similar idea is discussed by psychologists who say: "Smile and you will feel happy.")

That is the power of Torah commandments. Even if we may not feel like giving charity or praying at this particular moment, by having a "mitzvah" obligation to do so, we are in a framework to become inspired. At that point we can infuse that act of charity or prayer with all the meaning and lift it can provide. But if we'd wait until being inspired, we might be waiting a very long time.

May the Almighty bless you with the clarity to see your progress, and may you do so with joy.

In 1940, a boatload 1,600 Jewish immigrants fleeing Hitler's ovens was denied entry into the port of Haifa; the British deported them to the island of Mauritius. At the time, the British had acceded to Arab demands and restricted Jewish immigration into Palestine. The urgent plight of European Jewry generated an "illegal" immigration movement, but the British were vigilant in denying entry. Some ships, such as the Struma, sunk and their hundreds of passengers killed.

If you seize too much, you are left with nothing. If you take less, you may retain it (Rosh Hashanah 4b).

Sometimes our appetites are insatiable; more accurately, we act as though they were insatiable. The Midrash states that a person may never be satisfied. "If he has one hundred, he wants two hundred. If he gets two hundred, he wants four hundred" (Koheles Rabbah 1:34). How often have we seen people whose insatiable desire for material wealth resulted in their losing everything, much like the gambler whose constant urge to win results in total loss.

People's bodies are finite, and their actual needs are limited. The endless pursuit for more wealth than they can use is nothing more than an elusive belief that they can live forever (Psalms 49:10).

The one part of us which is indeed infinite is our neshamah (soul), which, being of Divine origin, can crave and achieve infinity and eternity, and such craving is characteristic of spiritual growth.

How strange that we tend to give the body much more than it can possibly handle, and the neshamah so much less than it needs!